Aircraft Cleaners guaranteed jobs under outsourcing plan
Air New Zealand today announced it is considering outsourcing its aircraft cleaning at Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, subject to contract negotiations with suppliers.
All affected staff would be given the opportunity to transfer to a new employer, or accept redundancy.
Of those positions, around 70 would be in Auckland, 13 in Wellington and around 30 in Christchurch.
“The Airline is in discussion with three cleaning service providers and expects to shortly be able to announce a decision on a successful tender. This is a business decision and is in no way a reflection on the quality of the work carried out by our staff,” says General Manager of Air New Zealand Airport Services Paul Reid.
Mr Reid says the airline has been consulting with unions since August 2005 about the future direction of aircraft cleaning.
“We have been open, honest and fair in our dealings with the unions and we will vigorously defend any legal challenges,” he said.
The Airline has received and considered a union counter proposal to outsourcing. However, it did not deliver the overall savings required.
Air New Zealand already outsources cleaning of its own aircraft at overseas ports and has conducted extensive market research, finding that there was no common pattern to the way other airlines handled cleaning.
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